Published by Four Corners Books, 2019, hardcover, illustrated, 480 pages, condition: as new.
Amid the chaos and violence of the 1905 Revolution in Russia, the Tsars opponents printed and distributed vast quantities of picture postcards. Easy to share, hide and smuggle, postcards were a way to beat the censor and spread a message of defiance.
Produced by a diverse set of revolutionaries, liberals and opportunists, the content of these cards is equally wide-ranging: from satirical caricatures directed against the government to rare photographs of revolutionary demonstrations. Many of the cards are darkly humorous, combining laughter with a sense of raw indignation at the injustices of Imperial Russia.
Assembled by Tobie Mathew, a writer and historian specializing in Russian graphic art and propaganda, Greetings from the Barricades is the first major study of the design, production and distribution of these cards, featuring more than 200 images. Together, they form a rich body of political art that illustrates the danger of opposing the regime during this turbulent era.
Greetings From the Barricades, a delight to read, illuminates a hitherto ignored aspect of Russia's revolutionary past. (Jeff Brooks)
The images reproduced here in glorious profusion are as colourful, powerful and original as you would expect at a moment when Russian art was in the ascendancy. (George Walden Times Literary Supplement)
In this handsomely illustrated book Tobie Mathew makes a case for the lowly postcards role in the politicization of pre-revolutionary Russia. (Charlotte Hobson Spectator)
Greetings From The Barricades, written by historian Tobie Mathew and published by Four Corners books, is the first major study of the design, production, and distribution of these cards, collecting over 200 images. Produced by revolutionaries, liberals and economic opportunists (postcards were in high demand and mostly sold rather than freely distributed), the cards are unified by their subtle design and sharp criticism of Tsarist repression. (Tank)
Offers an unexpected illustration of how new communication technologies can upend societies. (Ben Eastham White Review)
Tobie Mathews magnificent book testifies to Russias unrepeatable two years of free-ranging political satire. (Donald Rayfield Literary Review)
Greetings from the Barricades: Revolutionary Postcards in Imperial Russia takes as its theme the popularity of the postcard format in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Chronologically, its content ends with the abdication of the Tsar in early 1917 and the apparent fulfilment of many of the reformist hopes that inspired the cards seen in its pages. These were not, in the main, views of places or people intended to be sent simply through the Russian postal system. They were, rather, inexpensive ways of circulating photographs, cartoons, or other images via underground and, occasionally, commercial channels, facilitating the exchange of ideas in a country where the print media was often heavily censored. (Peter Lowe Russian Art & Culture)
Writer and journalist Tobie Mathews Greetings from the Barricades explores the history of Russian picture postcards, which opponents of the Tsar came up with as a way of beating censorship and inspiring defiance in the early 20th century. (Calvert Journal)
Written by Tobie Mathew, a historian specialising in Russian graphic art and propaganda, the book takes in the publishing activity of a diverse set of revolutionaries; who while differing in their views and intentions, were settled on the efficiency of postcards in spreading messages of defiance. (Billie Muraben It's Nice That)
As small and cheaply produced pieces of print, postcards were easily smuggled from person to person, allowing subversive ideas to be shared among a population that was largely illiterate. (Emma Tucker Creative Review)
